Southern California -- this just in

L.A.'s CicLAvia bike ride might become a monthly event

October 9, 2012 | 1:42
pm

Riding
a wave of popularity that has drawn hundreds of thousands to five car-free events in and around downtown Los Angeles in the last two years, the
organizers of CicLAvia are now wondering where to go next.

The
latest CicLAvia was held Sunday, when more than nine miles of city streets were
closed to motor vehicles for over five hours to make room for an estimated
100,000 bicyclists, pedestrians and skateboarders.

L.A.
held its first CicLAvia in October 2010, inspired by Bogota, Colombia’s weekly ciclovía (Spanish for
"bike path") events, which began more than three decades ago and have
been adopted by other cities in Latin America and the United States.

The
idea of CicLAvia is to get people out of their cars and to explore the city by
bicycling, walking, running, skateboarding or other healthy activities.

“We’ve
been talking internally and we’re trying to formulate what our policy is going
to be and what our plans are going to be for 2013,” said CicLAvia cofounder
Aaron Paley. “We have been looking at new places to do this in L.A. County and
not restricting it just to downtown L.A.”

“We’re
not going away … We’re definitely going to be a regular part of the fabric of
the city, and stay tuned for announcements for where we’re going to be going,”
Paley said.

Have
an idea for a CicLAvia route in the city or county? Here are some general
guidelines from Paley for suggested routes:

--No
freeways. “They’re not fun and friendly,” Paley said.

--Avoid
steep grades and hills as much as possible.

--Keep
the route between 5 and 10 miles.

--Pick
routes that connect neighborhoods.

--Stay away from residential areas in favor of commercial corridors.

--Stay away from streets with big-box stores that have big parking lots.
That’s because having CicLAvia on those streets would likely hurt business by
blocking parking.

--Think
about including special neighborhood landmarks and hubs such as Mariachi Plaza in
Boyle Heights or Exposition Park on the route.

--The
route should be basically linear and should not be a loop or in the shape of a
“C” or circle because that would be a severe inconvenience for people inside the closure
areas.